Drunk driving is the leading cause of death for people from the age of six to thirty-three years old (Curran, 1). One in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime (MADD, 1). Everyday thirty-six people in the United States die due to the crashes and approximately 700 more are injured in car crashes that involve alcohol-impaired drivers. This year, 10,839 people will die in drunk-driving crashes; one every fifty minutes (MADD, 1). “Cracking down on those who take drugs or drink and then drive is a year round commitment for Warwickshire and West Mercia.”- West Mercia Police.
Some of those reasons being the crime rates, the costs of what could happen, and injuries. Firearm injuries have killed more than 28,000 Americans each year since 1972 (Ruben). In 2007, thirty-one thousand two hundred twenty four Americans died due to homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings. Accidental shootings happen quite often. In 2007, around seventy thousand Americans were hospitalized due to accidental shootings.
Name: Brandon Adrien Teen Driving Issues Project Topic: Drunk Driving |Section Heading |Information | |Why is this a problem, |This is truly a great problem because according to the DMV, being intoxicated while driving is a common cause | |especially for teen |of very serious crashes, especially those that are fatal, involving teenage drivers. | |drivers? | | |Statistics from |More than 10,000 people die by drunk driving and hundreds of thousands have been injured. | |research regarding teen|Every year, about 708,000 people get injured in crashes related to alcohol. | |crash rates.
In this section of the report, the authors detail the rate at which destructive fire kills, injures, and causes property loss to Americans. The report states that fire claims the lives of 12,000 people every year in the U.S., making it the second highest cause of accidental death. That isn’t the only human toll, because there are also 300,000 people who are injured by fire on an annual basis. The authors expound on the injuries by detailing the painful experiences of patients who must endure numerous plastic and reconstructive surgeries. The price of destructive fire is estimated at over $11 billion a year in the U.S. Loss of businesses leads to loss of jobs, which is a price that is beyond calculation.
While it is true that guns are involved in thousands of deaths per year in the United States, there are things that lead to far more deaths than guns. According to Levitt, in 2009, 45,000 people died in autmobile related accidents and only 30,000 died in gun related incidents (151). Using the logic of those against gun rights, it’s the car’s fault not the driver’s fault that 45,000 people die every year. This is just an irrational attempt to shift reponsibility off of the people that actually cause these incidents. Another example that shows that guns aren’t so dangerous is that in any given year there is one drowning of a child for every 11,000 residential pools as compared to 1 death for every 1 million guns, or 175 children killed for the over 200 million guns owned in the U.S. (Levitt 150).
My Three Bad Driving Habits Thousands of people are killed in car accidents every year. There are an assortment of reasons why; from driving drunk to even falling asleep at the wheel. The main reason that most people are killed in car accidents each year is because most people have very bad driving habits, and the main of these people are teenagers. Many teens believe themselves to be immortal, so they feel they can do anything and nothing will go wrong, or hurt them. The three worst habits teens have are road rage, poor grasp on safety, and multitasking.
If you were traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field while blindfolded! American drivers in their 20’s make up over 27 percent of the overall ‘distracted’ drivers involving fatalities; 10 percent of which are under the age of 20. Of that group, it includes the largest quantity of ‘distracted-driver’ accidents in the US. There needs to be tighter regulations on cellphone use while driving. With the population boom, just about everyone has a Millennial in their family or at least knows of one.
Smoking and its effect on the circulatory system While there are many different types of drugs worldwide, nicotine is by far the most widely used drug of abuse and one of the most addictive. (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2008; Psychology Today, 2010). US researchers have estimated that one in five deaths each year, more than 400,000 deaths are as a result of smoking. Illegal drug use and alcohol abuse are on the increase and so is the spread of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV The current economic situation has seen a rise in suicides and murders being committed. While these have presented large mortality rates, tobacco causes more deaths than all the above combined.
Trauma is one of the most usual ones which as a result of that nearly 30,000 people lost their vision in the United States [4]. The causes of these injuries have mostly been reported for the vehicle-related eye injuries with 66,000 people [3].
What is more frightening is 11 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United State is by 12 to 20-year olds; most of the time these people can get a hold of alcohol for free. This amount of underage drinking can cause a person to become more aggressive, which can lead to increased violence, injuries, and death. Sadly, within the United States, more than 4,000 people under the age of 21 die due to underage drinking. Many of which are from motor vehicle crashes and homicides, then with nearly 500 committing suicide on average after consuming alcohol.